Music To Cook To In January – A Host Of Golden Oldies – Elvis Presley, Dinah Washington, Hank Williams… Paco de Lucia. And a Couple of Films

“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it”
….from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – the last of the twelve days of Christmas, otherwise known as Epiphany, the feast day of the three kings, which falls on the 6th January. One of them, Caspar (or ‘Gaspar’), brought gold.
So the films for this month have got to be Twelfth Night (a lovely rendering of Purcell’s If music be the food of love) and the wonderful early Bond, Goldfinger. The clip below the Purcell gives a flavour of the delights of Goldfinger, including the famous quote…
“‘Do you expect me to talk?’… ‘No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die'”
And the music for this month is also mostly about gold, and when I search Amazon I find a whole plethora of vintage music on albums named ‘Gold’. So here’s my golden oldies list for January – all from albums named ‘Gold’.
But there is also the lovely voice of Elena Ledda, singing Fabrizio De Andrè’s Pregadoria In Gennargiu (prayer in January).
As a complete contrast Connie Francis song (from her album Gold) is true music history.
artist /composer |
song
/album |
what’s it like? |
buy it |
Diana Ross and The Supremes | Standing at the crossroads of love | This version without Diana Ross | Amazon |
Smokey Robinson and the miracles | The Tracks of My Tears | The tracks of my tears | Amazon |
Smokey Robinson and the miracles | The Tears of a Clown | The tears of a clown | Amazon |
Marvin Gaye | I heard it through the grapevine | I heard it through the grapevine | Amazon |
The Four Tops | Reach out, I’ll be there | Reach out, I’ll be there | Amazon |
Spandau Ballet | Gold | YouTube | Amazon |
The Mammas and the Papas | Monday, Monday | YouTube | Amazon |
Donna Summer | Con Te Partiró – I will go with you | YouTube | Amazon |
Chuck Berry | Guitar boogie | YouTube | Amazon |
Elvis Presley | Gold – buy the whole album! | YouTube | Amazon |
Abba | Dancing Queen | YouTube | Amazon |
Moody Blues | Knights in white satin | YouTube | Amazon |
Connie Francis | Lipstick on your collar | YouTube | Amazon |
Hank Williams | Jambalaya | YouTube | Amazon |
Joan Armatrading | Love and affection | YouTube | Amazon |
Dinah Washington | Mad about the boy | YouTube | Amazon |
Neil Diamond | Sweet Caroline | YouTube | Amazon |
The Human League | Don’t you want me | YouTube | Amazon |
Dusty Springfield | Son of a preacher man | YouTube | Amazon |
Paco de Lucia | Entre dos aguas | YouTube | Amazon |
Gladys Knight and the pips | Licence to kill | YouTube | Amazon |